Listener 4154: Downsizing by Dilwitch

[midazolam]

Another debut! I am usually not one for Listener's where there's no PDM etc but I enjoyed this one. Difficulty enhanced by the difference in definition and wordplay together with some tough clues.

Good clues were the & lit in 16A, the clever wordplay in 7D and excellent 1A. I also liked the new usage of waterboard in 38A

Less favourable clues were the odd 28D (wordplay being the whole clue and definition being only half - just doesnt work), 11A (definition veering away from BRB - although given my avatar..say no more!) and the obscurities in 15A (capitalisation & random made up word)

Overall a fun, challenging debut. Thanks Dilwitch

[email protected]

[jim360]

Oh well. Short run of form with last three listeners solved coming to an end this week I fear... been about an hour now and not one clue solved yet. Didn't even win on 4151, cry. Time to draw on the hint-givers!

[bobbycollins]

Well I also enjoyed this. The clues for the Fabs all made me smile.I groaned when I saw the entry length for 37a but shouldn't have worried - another LOL moment.

[trux]

Huge thanks to dead-eye with his .. well, ... dead-eye prediction. And fortunately I must have forgotten how little ten bob is, as my bookie is now smarting (just a little) .... didn't pay for the holiday in Greece but certainly covered yesterday's lunch ! So many, many thx again,d-e. More next week, please ...

[trux]

If you did see the race, Contendo, that was what I would call a "romp"

[jim360]

pessimism will get you nowhere...

that's more like it, seven clues down. Phew.

[Walterloo]

I'm impressed by those of you who finished this relatively quickly, let alone on Friday! I've found this a bit hard going. I do have only two answers to fill in though, 20 and 37 across with one square to be filled in each. I'm finding them most elusive. Am I right in thinking that both of these are not in the BRB?

[Walterloo]

Just got 20 after a flash of inspiration!

[contendo]

Finally solved 38a after correcting my errors in 28d & 21d. I must say I am full of admiration for those who have solved this in airports etc. without the BRB.
I note that the OED has become the ODE. I presume there's some furtive politically correct reason behind this, thought I can't fathom it. Maybe we'll now get the ODF, the ODS and the ODI.

[Walterloo]

...Finally solved 37 after correcting my error in 31 down. Sorry, Contendo, I couldn't resist adopting your opening line there.

Finished, but still have 7 answers to which the wordplay is unconfirmed. A good challenge nonetheless.

[perseverer]

contendo - OED and ODE are 2 different dictionaries - part of a bewildering range of similarly named products from OUP

http://ukcatalogue.ou...ctionaries/english.do

if you can be bothered.

[pushmi-pullyu]

Two more to go. 20 took me longer than it should have given the other Fab Four references, but made me smile. IainGrace, thank you for your clarification of last week's - I shall have one more attempt at finishing it.

[contendo]

Thanks for enlightening me Perseverer. Meanwhile I feared the worst for the new Chambers : "Rather than clog up space with lengthy definitions of everyday words, The Chambers Dictionary keeps them short..." I thought this might mean that they were eliminating some of the more obscure variant meanings of common words which often provide difficult definitions for crosswords, but so far I haven't found any omissions from previous editions.

[Clamzy]

I think I asked last week whether anyone had yet received their new edition of Chambers and many were having difficulty obtaining a copy.
Contendo - If you now have yours may I ask again, is it both big and red?

[contendo]

Clamzy - You'll be relieved to hear that it's both red and big, though not quite as big as the last edition (thinner paper). It has a gimmicky new central section. It has lost the list of names and a few other minor items at the back.

[jim360]

Taken 15 posts between giving up and almost completing - one more cell to go but I can't seem to solve 39a.

[Zabadak]

Jim360. Hopefully not breaking too many of the unwritten rules, just a hint. "Unclothed" in crosswordspeak sometimes just means remove the outer letters.

[Clamzy]

Zab - No offence intended but don't you think that anyone requiring hints at that basic level is not yet ready for the Listener and should "learn the trade" with AZed, Mephisto etc.

[Philoctetes]

@Perseverer - I look forward to a rubric saying "Answers may be found in Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue from the Twelfth Century to the End of the Seventeenth
Volume 8, Ru-Sh"

[perseverer]

I know it has been posted frequently before, but it might be worth a reminder to say that many local libraries subscribe to Oxford Reference Online, which includes OED and ODQ.

http://www.oxfordrefe...m/pub/views/home.html

Enter your library card number and see if it will acept it.

[Zabadak]

Clamzy - maybe, but everybody got to start on the Listener at some time. And as it happens, that clue, and that bit of it, caused me more skull sweat than any other - should I quit Listeners, do you think?
PS Nice one, Jim!